Chris Harris is a Deer in Headlights

"Zachary Oberle" (zacharyoberle)
06/01/2016 at 13:25 • Filed to: None

Think about it: Chris Harris is absolutely out of his element here. He’s used to being part of a show that’s a two-man operation at most. Previously, he’s had complete creative control over his work. Now he’s on Extra Gear at the BBC and that’s not how things go down there at all.

Harris, like all the other ‘less important’ members of this new Top Gear effort, will have been corralled and marginalized during the frantic production of the first season. Big personality clashes between overpaid man-baby Chris Evans and BBC brass will have totally eclipsed Harris’s involvement.

Harris will have been given his instructions and has now done his best given the constraints he had to work with. It wasn’t an outright bad performance, but it’s easy to tell he wasn’t at his best. It’s even easier to tell that he’s been given a script and/or been told what to say by the producers. Again, that’s just not something Chris Harris has done much of in his career as an auto-journalist. He’s always been absolutely honest in his self-expression, to a fault even. That’s always gonna clash with his new home at the Beeb.

I really hope that Chris Harris can find room to maneuver at the BBC. If he can get comfortable with this new working environment then I think it could do great things for both his career and Top Gear. There were some moments during the first episode of Extra Gear where he was in full-on, geeking-out-about-cars mode. This is where Harris is at his best, like when he interviewed Norbert Singer:

Sadly, in my heart of hearts, I think Chris Harris is going to get squeezed out of Top Gear.

Harris will make a valiant effort, but the new Top Gear will struggle because Chris Evans is terrible. BBC brass won’t want to admit that because they’ve paid so much money and endured so much bullshit to have him. Also, Evans is way too proud to ever take a back seat. He’ll gladly sacrifice every other presenter on the show so long as he gets to stay in the spotlight. He’ll keep blaming the bad ratings on absolutely everyone other than himself, thus ensuring the whole thing goes down in flames with him on board.

Somewhere during that failure, Chris Harris will jump ship because he’s a smart guy.

The only hope for the new Top Gear is that BBC brass grows some balls, admits that they were wrong, and gives Chris Evans the axe. At this point, Matt LeBlanc is just a prop as well. They’ll need to either ditch him or combine him with different presenters that have some decent chemistry together.

In my perfect world, the BBC either fires Chris Evans or makes him a producer who has no screen-time. Then they give Harris, Sabine, and LeBlanc a try as a trio on the main show.

What do you guys think?

DISCUSSION (11)

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > Zachary Oberle
06/01/2016 at 13:49

Who says there has to be only three? Rory was good on extra gear, and I think he has great potential. I also think that when LeBlanc isn’t being shouted at/over by the Annoying One, he’s actually pretty good. I think we can all agree that Evans is the weakest link though.

djmt1 > Zachary Oberle
06/01/2016 at 13:50

That the series has just started and that it’s too early to making sweeping judgements based on what little we have seen.

Jayhawk Jake > Zachary Oberle
06/01/2016 at 14:07

What? I thought Harris was great in all his segments.

JDIGGS > Zachary Oberle
06/01/2016 at 14:15

I vote for just Harris and Sabine, everyone else on the show is just wasting my time.

JDIGGS > Zachary Oberle
06/01/2016 at 14:16

Someone should start a petition to have Chris Evans removed.

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > Zachary Oberle
06/01/2016 at 14:30

5 years from now Top Gear will be just Harris and Rory. God willing anyway.....

Zachary Oberle > WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI
06/01/2016 at 14:53

Man, I fucking hope so. It has to be three though, so you’d have Harris, Rory, and one other presenter, either an existing one who improves or someone new.

Zachary Oberle > JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t
06/01/2016 at 15:11

Yea, reading that back I should have written it a bit differently. I more meant that as like a next step for a film. I definitely see new Top Gear having a pool of presenters larger than three. Just like Clarkson’s Top Gear, different films would have a different mix of presenters. With a pool of four, you could make a wider variety of films with different dynamics between presenters.

A Rory/Harris/Sabine film would come out totally different than a Harris/Sabine/Leblanc film. Or Leblanc/Rory vs Leblanc/Harris films. We’ve already seen a great Rory/Sabine film and I personally love those two together.

I’d say it’s a case of subtract Chris Evans, let Rory and Harris on proper Top Gear, and watch the ratings climb.

Zachary Oberle > Jayhawk Jake
06/01/2016 at 17:32

He was great, but not nearly as great as he’s been with his own program: Chris Harris on Cars. He’s done much, much better performances on CHOC than he did for Extra Gear.

Zachary Oberle > djmt1
06/01/2016 at 17:33

It is too early, I’m purely just spit-balling here. I’m confident enough that I want to write about it now, because I think what I’m saying here will be proved out in time.

Or it’ll go totally different and I’ll look an ass, haha.

DragonBreath > Zachary Oberle
06/06/2016 at 17:48

Chris Harris can’t carry the show. He doesn’t have the presence for a primetime TV show.

He may grow into that, but he is not there now. I’ve watched plenty of his videos, but leading Top Gear means more than just driving and talking while doing it.

Chris Evans is not awful, he is just too loud and shouty. He was given a terribly difficult job, taking over the #1 show in the world. He isn’t hitting it out of the park, but he isn’t terrible. They need to get him to be the same person in the studio that he was on the trip in South Africa, then I think he will be better.

And I hope that Chris Harris will stay and develop into the new Richard Hammond. Obviously he won’t be the same, but he can fill the same role, eventually. I think he could be an excellent foil for Chris Evans when they get Evans to dial it back to about 7.